It is heartening to see that
organisation like Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition (CIZC) are finally calling a
spade a spade!
“The sham 2018 polls resulted in a
serious legitimacy crisis that came with adverse effects on economic revival
and re-engagement with the international community,” said CIZC statement.
“In January 2018, suffering
Zimbabweans took to the streets to protest against the continued economic
meltdown and again, the army resorted to brutality and this resulted in the
death of about 12 civilians while others were raped and tortured.”
Gone is the wishy-washy “disputed 2018
elections” as if the writer is totally incapable of deciding for themselves
whether or not the elections were free, fair and credible. Of course, last year’s
elections were a “sham”! ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified
voters’ roll, 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied a vote, etc.
It is a great shame that country’s
corrupt and incompetent opposition participated in the flawed and illegal
elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections and, worse
still, that by participating they would give the flawed process some
credibility!
In his Book, The Struggle Continues
50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of
Education in the GNU, David Coltart, gave details of how Zanu PF flouted the
electoral rules, it clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and
fair. Meanwhile talks of uniting the two MDC factions to fight the elections as
one were going nowhere.
“The worst aspect for me about the
failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious –
withdraw from the (2013) elections,” confessed MDC Senator David Coltart in his
book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of
tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“The electoral process was so flawed,
so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC
to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and
MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the
elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
As a matter of historic fact, four of
the MDC factions did form a coalition before last year’s elections and still
they participated in these elections too.
It is a double shame that the people
of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the
understanding they would deliver the changes to stop the curse of rigged
elections. It is heart breaking that MDC leaders have not only failed to
deliver even one democratic change in 20 years but worse still they are the
ones knowingly giving rigged elections credibility!
“We further implore the government to
respect the right to protest peacefully as enshrined under Section 59 of the
country’s constitution,” continued CIZC statement.
“More importantly, we reiterate our
call for an all stakeholders dialogue as a way of unlocking the multi-faceted
crisis in Zimbabwe.
“This national dialogue process must
not be restricted to political parties but should rather bring on board a cross
section of stakeholders including civic society, labour, religious groups,
business among other critical stakeholders.”
So, it took CIZC a year to finally
admit that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections. One can only hope that it is
NOT going to take another year for CIZC to finally come to the conclusion that
Zanu PF has no democratic mandate to govern, the party is in fact illegitimate.
The national dialogue that many
people including the country’s main opposition, the MDC, are proposing will
result in a power sharing arrangement in which Zanu PF will play a role. A
similar power sharing arrangement resulted in the 2008 to 2013 GNU involving
both Zanu PF and MDC. The GNU failed to implement even one reform in five
years. The new proposed arrangement will not do any better.
Zanu PF has rigged elections ever
since the country attained her independence back in 1980. The nation has again
and again foolishly rewarded the party with absolute power. After 39 years of
appeasing Zanu PF with the tragic consequences we can see in Zimbabwe today;
just how many more years, human suffering and deaths will it take before we finally
accept appeasing an illegitimate regime is insane!
Last year’s elections were a sham,
Zanu PF is illegitimate and the least we can do is demand that Zanu PF steps
down and not to be rewarding the party with political power for committing high
treason! Even now with the country's very survival on the line, the primeval call to appease Zanu PF is simply irresistible!
2 comments:
It is most heartening to see CIZC is now admitting last year's elections were a sham resulting in the illegitimate Zanu PF government in power today. The least we should be demanding is for the illegitimate regime to step down otherwise we should be demanding the regime must be brought to book and punished for high treason.
It is sad that CIZC is calling for the national dialogue whose end result is Zanu PF sharing power. Some people cannot resist the primeval urge to appease Zanu PF even now with the nation's very survival on the line!
@ Terence
Zanu continue to repeat the mantra that western ‘sanctions’ are the cause of the economic rot in the country. The coup announcer, SB Moyo, while in London and right before we showed our defiance to him, was regurgitating the same pieties about sanctions at Chatham house.
The claims that sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic woes have all been shot down the only reason Zanu PF keeps regurgitating the same nonsense is because the regime has nothing new to say. Zanu PF is stuck with the sanctions excuse just as the nation itself is stuck with the corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous regime.
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and all pressure should have been brought to bear on the regime to resign. Sadly, that was no to be. By participating in the flawed election the opposition gave the process some credibility!
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